San Andrés (Mesoamerican site)

A rollout of the San Andrés cylinder seal, showing the bird possibly "speaking" the name "3 Ajaw"

San Andrés is an Olmecarchaeological site in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Located 5 km (3 miles) northeast of the Olmec ceremonial center of La Venta in the Grijalva river delta section of the Tabasco Coastal Plain, San Andrés is considered one of its elite satellite communities, with evidence of elite residences and other elite activities. Several important archaeological finds have been made at San Andrés, including the oldest evidence of the domesticated sunflower,[1] insight into Olmec feasting rituals,[2] didactic miniatures,[3] and possible evidence of an Olmec writing system.[4]

Mary Pohl, funded by The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI), has been a crucial part of conducting ceramic analysis and collecting evidence of feasting vessels and early Olmec writing on greenstone plaques and ceramic roller stamps.[5]

The earliest evidence of human activity at San Andrés – maize (Zea species) pollen and extensive charcoal deposits from swidden (slash-and-burn) agriculture – has been dated to 5300 BCE.[6] At that time, the Gulf of Mexico was further inland and San Andrés was the site of beach ridges and barrier lagoons, features that are today some 15 km to the north.[7]

Later evidence of human habitation includes pollen dated to 4600 BCE, seeds from 2600 BCE, and evidence of maize cultivation from 2000 BCE.

San Andrés and La Venta in the context of the Olmec heartland

The first evidence of Olmec occupation has been dated to 1350 BCE, an occupation that lasted some 150 years (until 1200 BCE), with an ensuing hiatus lasting until roughly 900 BCE. Continuously occupied over the following 550 years, San Andrés was finally abandoned some time before 350 BCE. This date roughly coincides with the abandonment of the La Venta and the dissolution of the Olmec culture.[8]

San Andrés is notable for the ancient pollen and seeds recovered there. Although the humid rainy tropical lowlands have made quick work of organic substances, including Olmec skeletal remains, the multi-disciplinary research team delved below the water table, hoping that the preservative nature of water-logged soil would enable them to retrieve ancient samples.

Their findings include:

Early maize (Zea species) pollen from as early as 5100 BCE.

A single manioc pollen grain dated to roughly 4600 BCE. Since manioc pollen is rare in sediments, its discovery was either "fortuitous, or abundant stands of manioc were growing close to the site".

A domesticated sunflower seed and fruit dated to roughly 2650 BCE and 2550 BCE respectively. This is the earliest record yet of the domesticated sunflower.

Cotton (Gossypium) pollen from roughly 2500 BCE. The researchers suggest that this cotton was domesticated, although wild cotton does occur naturally along the Gulf Coast to the east.[9]

“In Formative period Mesoamerica, high-status goods were significant components of cultural practice and a source of social, political, and ideological power.” [10] Seinfeld (2007) asserts that “early complex societies often used feasting as a way for individuals to gain followers and to assert their status” and that this occurred at San Andres.[11] This study is particularly interesting because the researchers used sound and updated methods to determine social facts concerning feasting at a site where little is conclusively known about social structures. Maize and cacao were detected due to their distinctive biomarkers including C4 signature plant carbon for maize and nitrogen containing organic compounds for cacao.[12] “Discoveries include patterns of maize use suggestive of its use as an elite feasting food and beverage rather than as a dietary staple. Further results suggest possible evidence of Olmec cacao use.” [13] During the Middle Formative period feasting allowed the elite to demonstrate their power and enhance their status and identity, as the consumption of alcohol had ritualistic and spiritual meaning among the elites. Cocoa, maize-alcohol, and “elite-foods” gave these gatherings special significance and provides definite proof that there was an elite class in San Andres, and, by extension, La Venta.

Pohl (2005) and her colleagues found plenty of evidence to suggest that miniature representations of everyday objects were used ritualistically. “These miniatures may have been crafted with the express purpose of composing didactic or ritual reenactments of crucial mythic or conventionalized historic events much in the same fashion as La Venta Offering 4.” [14] Other elite-religious-status denoting objects (greenstone artifacts, jewelry, maskettes, iron-ore mirrors, etc.) were found at San Andres. “A contextual comparison suggests that, like the La Venta prestige artifacts, the San Andrés sumptuary items were significant components of ceremonial activity.” [15]

San Andrés glyphs. The top set of glyphs have been interpreted as "3 Ajaw". The bottom two glyphs were found incised into semi-precious greenstone artifacts.

Excavations at San Andrés in 1997 and 1998 produced three artifacts that many archaeologists contend demonstrate that the Olmec civilization used a true writing system. These artifacts, dated roughly to 650 BCE (the middle of the Olmec concentration at La Venta and San Andres), were found in a refuse dump, the remains from a festival or feast. “The fact that the artifacts with glyphs were found in the context of feasting refuse suggest that writing among the Olmec was sacred and was closely tied to ritual activities.” [16]

The most important find was a fist-sized ceramic cylinder seal, likely used to print cloth. When rolled out, the seal shows two speech scrolls emanating from a bird, followed directly by a number of design elements enframing what has been interpreted as logograms for “king (sideways U shape),” "3 (three dots, according to the Mesoamerican bar and dots numbering system),” and “Ajaw (from the sacred 260-day calendar)", a designation used for both a calendar date and, in keeping with Mesoamerican custom, the name of an Olmec ruler.
In addition to the ceramic cylinder seal, two fingernail-sized fragments from a greenstone plaque have been recovered, each containing an incised glyph. Both these glyphs have been linked to well-documented glyphs in other Mesoamerican writing systems, including the Isthmian and Maya scripts.[17]

Well-known archaeologist and writer Michael D. Coe interprets these glyphs as "an early kind of writing" [18] while Richard A. Diehl, who excavated at the Olmec site of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan with Coe, finds that this discovery "establishes the existence of Olmec writing and calendrics by 650 B.C.E" [19] On the other hand, Mayanist epigrapher David Stuart stated that it would be hard to discern evidence of a writing system in a handful of symbols.[20]

The question of whether the Olmecs possessed a writing system was complicated in 2006 by the discovery of the Cascajal Block. This artifact, a slab of serpentine with 62 incised characters, has been dated to 900 BCE, although it was discovered without archaeological context. Instead of being precursors to the San Andrés glyphs, however, the 28 unique Cascajal block characters bear no obvious resemblance to them and are, indeed, unlike those of any other Mesoamerican writing system.[21] Questions concerning the interpretation of the San Andrés glyphs (and the Cascajal block) will need to await further research.

1.
Olmec
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The Olmecs were the first major civilization in Guatemala and Mexico following a progressive development in Soconusco and modern southwestern pacific lowlands of Guatemala. They lived in the lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz. It has been speculated that Olmec derive in part from neighboring Mokaya and/or Mixe–Zoque, the population of the Olmecs flourished during Mesoamericas formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization, and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed, among other firsts, the Olmec appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies. The aspect of the Olmecs most familiar now is their artwork, the Olmec civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors purchased on the pre-Columbian art market in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Olmec artworks are considered among ancient Americas most striking, the name Olmec comes from the Nahuatl word for the Olmecs, Ōlmēcatl or Ōlmēcah. This word is composed of the two words ōlli, meaning rubber, and mēcatl, meaning people, so the word means rubber people, the Olmec heartland is the area in the Gulf lowlands where it expanded after early development in Soconusco. This area is characterized by swampy lowlands punctuated by low hills, ridges, the Tuxtlas Mountains rise sharply in the north, along the Gulf of Mexicos Bay of Campeche. Here the Olmec constructed permanent city-temple complexes at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, in this region, the first Mesoamerican civilization emerged and reigned from c. The beginnings of Olmec civilization have traditionally been placed between 1400 and 1200 BCE, past finds of Olmec remains ritually deposited at El Manati shrine moved this back to at least 1600–1500 BCE. It seems that the Olmec had their roots in early farming cultures of Tabasco and these shared the same basic food crops and technologies of the later Olmec civilization. What is today called Olmec first appeared fully within the city of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, the rise of civilization was assisted by the local ecology of well-watered alluvial soil, as well as by the transportation network provided by the Coatzacoalcos River basin. This environment may be compared to that of other ancient centers of civilization, the Nile, Indus, and Yellow River valleys and this highly productive environment encouraged a densely concentrated population, which in turn triggered the rise of an elite class. The elite class created the demand for the production of the symbolic, the state of Guerrero, and in particular its early Mezcala culture, seem to have played an important role in the early history of Olmec culture. Olmec-style artifacts tend to appear earlier in some parts of Guerrero than in the Veracruz-Tabasco area, in particular, the relevant objects from the Amuco-Abelino site in Guerrero reveal dates as early as 1530 BC. The city of Teopantecuanitlan in Guerrero is also relevant in this regard, the first Olmec center, San Lorenzo, was all but abandoned around 900 BCE at about the same time that La Venta rose to prominence. A wholesale destruction of many San Lorenzo monuments also occurred circa 950 BCE, which may indicate an internal uprising or, less likely, an invasion. The latest thinking, however, is that changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmec centers

2.
Tabasco
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Tabasco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa and it is located in the southeast of the country bordering the states of Campeche to the northeast, Veracruz to the west and Chiapas to the south, and the Petén department of Guatemala to the southeast. It has a coastline to the north with the Gulf of Mexico, most of the state is covered in rainforest as, unlike most other areas of Mexico, it has plentiful rainfall year round. For this reason, it is covered in small lakes, wetlands. The state is subject to flooding events, with the last occurring in 2007. The state is home to La Venta, the major site of the Olmec civilization. Even though it produces significant quantities of petroleum and natural gas, the state is located in the southeast of Mexico, bordering the states of Campeche, Chiapas and Veracruz with the Gulf of Mexico to the north and the country of Guatemala to the south and east. The state covers 24,731 square kilometres, which is 1. 3% of Mexicos total, the northwestern portion is on the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico with the south and east as part of the mountain chain that extends into northern Chiapas. It is divided into seventeen municipalities, there are 36 communities designated as urban with about 3,000 smaller towns and villages. 185 are classified as regional development centers, in 1994, the state was officially divided into two regions, five sub regions for socioeconomic development and geographic documentation. The two major regions are called the Grijalva and the Usumacinta, the Grijalva Region is named after the river on which most of the municipalities here are dependent. The Usumacinta Region is named after the river on which the Centla, Jonuta, Emiliano Zapata, Balancán. It is divided into the Pantanos and Ríos subregions, which are more rural than the Grijalva Region. The environment of the consists of extensive low lying floodplains, mountains. Most of the territory is covered with tropical rainforest and wetlands, there are also areas with savanna, beaches and mangrove forests. Much of the rainforest has suffered due to over logging. The east is formed by low humid plains formed by sediment deposited by a number of rivers, in the Chontalpa zone and in parts of the municipalities of Cental and Jonuta, there are swampy depressions extremely vulnerable to flooding from both river flow and from excessive rainfall. In the south there are some elevations which are part of the central mesa of Chiapas, the most important of these is El Madrigal, La Campana, La Corona, Pomaná, Coconá, Mono Pelado and El Tortuguero

3.
Writing system
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A writing system is any conventional method of visually representing verbal communication. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a form of information storage. The processes of encoding and decoding writing systems involve shared understanding between writers and readers of the meaning behind the sets of characters that make up a script, the general attributes of writing systems can be placed into broad categories such as alphabets, syllabaries, or logographies. Any particular system can have attributes of more than one category, in the alphabetic category, there is a standard set of letters of consonants and vowels that encode based on the general principle that the letters represent speech sounds. In a syllabary, each symbol correlates to a syllable or mora, in a logography, each character represents a word, morpheme, or other semantic units. Other categories include abjads, which differ from alphabets in that vowels are not indicated, alphabets typically use a set of 20-to-35 symbols to fully express a language, whereas syllabaries can have 80-to-100, and logographies can have several hundreds of symbols. Systems will also enable the stringing together of these groupings in order to enable a full expression of the language. The reading step can be accomplished purely in the mind as an internal process, writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, which used pictograms, ideograms and other mnemonic symbols. Proto-writing lacked the ability to capture and express a range of thoughts. Soon after, writing provided a form of long distance communication. With the advent of publishing, it provided the medium for a form of mass communication. Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that a system is always associated with at least one spoken language. In contrast, visual representations such as drawings, paintings, and non-verbal items on maps, such as contour lines, are not language-related. Some other symbols, such as numerals and the ampersand, are not directly linked to any specific language, every human community possesses language, which many regard as an innate and defining condition of humanity. However, the development of writing systems, and the process by which they have supplanted traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, uneven, once established, writing systems generally change more slowly than their spoken counterparts. Thus they often preserve features and expressions which are no current in the spoken language. One of the benefits of writing systems is that they can preserve a permanent record of information expressed in a language. In the examination of individual scripts, the study of writing systems has developed along partially independent lines, thus, the terminology employed differs somewhat from field to field

4.
Maize
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Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, the leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, recent research modified this view somewhat, scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. The Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked and its believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Nevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier, according to Piperno, A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since then, even earlier dates have been published, the study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths and this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small,25 millimetres long corn cobs, Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol, genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe, Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation. At another level, Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, that not only would they weaken, despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize and archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates and it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbuss voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant and it is known by other names around the world. The word corn outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize, this usage started as a shortening of Indian corn. Indian corn primarily means maize, but can more specifically to multicolored flint corn used for decoration

5.
Charcoal
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Charcoal is a lightweight, black residue, consisting of carbon and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis- the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen, the whole pile is covered with turf or moistened clay. The firing is begun at the bottom of the flue, the success of the operation depends upon the rate of the combustion. The operation is so delicate that it was left to colliers. They often lived alone in small huts in order to tend their wood piles, for example, in the Harz Mountains of Germany, charcoal burners lived in conical huts called Köten which are still much in evidence today. The massive production of charcoal was a cause of deforestation. The increasing scarcity of easily harvested wood was a factor behind the switch to fossil fuel equivalents, mainly coal. Charcoal made at 300 °C is brown, soft and friable, and readily inflames at 380 °C, made at higher temperatures it is hard and brittle, in Finland and Scandinavia, the charcoal was considered the by-product of wood tar production. The best tar came from pine, thus pinewoods were cut down for tar pyrolysis, the residual charcoal was widely used as substitute for metallurgical coke in blast furnaces for smelting. Tar production led to deforestation, it has been estimated all Finnish forests are younger than 300 years. The end of tar production at the end of the 19th century resulted in rapid re-forestation, the charcoal briquette was first invented and patented by Ellsworth B. A. Zwoyer of Pennsylvania in 1897 and was produced by the Zwoyer Fuel Company. The process was popularized by Henry Ford, who used wood. Ford Charcoal went on to become the Kingsford Company, Charcoal has been made by various methods. The traditional method in Britain used a clamp and this is essentially a pile of wooden logs leaning against a chimney. The chimney consists of 4 wooden stakes held up by some rope, the logs are completely covered with soil and straw allowing no air to enter. It must be lit by introducing some burning fuel into the chimney, if the soil covering gets torn by the fire, additional soil is placed on the cracks. Once the burn is complete, the chimney is plugged to prevent air from entering, the true art of this production method is in managing the sufficient generation of heat, and its transfer to wood parts in the process of being carbonised. A strong disadvantage of this method is the huge amount of emissions that are harmful to human health

6.
Slash-and-burn
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Slash-and-burn agriculture, or fire–fallow cultivation, is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. In subsistence agriculture, slash-and-burn typically uses little technology and it is often applied in shifting cultivation agriculture and in transhumance livestock herding. Slash-and-burn is used by 200–500 million people worldwide, in 2004 it was estimated that in Brazil alone,500,000 small farmers each cleared an average of one hectare of forest per year. The technique is not scalable or sustainable for large human populations, methods such as Inga alley farming have been proposed as alternatives which would cause less environmental degradation. Historically, slash-and-burn cultivation has been practiced throughout much of the world and this happened in the river valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Due to this decrease in food hunting, as human populations increased. Some groups could easily plant their crops in fields along river valleys. In this context, humans used slash-and-burn agriculture to more land to make it suitable for plants. Thus, since Neolithic times, slash-and-burn techniques have been used for converting forests into crop fields. Fire was used before the Neolithic as well, and by hunter-gatherers up to present times, clearings created by fire were made for many reasons, such as to draw game animals and to promote certain kinds of edible plants such as berries. Slash-and-burn fields are used and owned by a family until the soil is exhausted. At this point the ownership rights are abandoned, the family clears a new field, after a few decades, another family or clan may then use the land and claim usufructuary rights. In such a system there is no market in farmland, so land is not bought or sold in the open market. In slash-and-burn agriculture, forests are typically cut months before a dry season, the slash is permitted to dry, and then burned in the following dry season. The resulting ash fertilizes the soil and the field is then planted at the beginning of the next rainy season with crops such as upland rice, maize, cassava. Most of this work is typically done by hand, using basic tools as machetes, axes, hoes. Large families or clans wandering in the lush woodlands long continued to be the most common form of life through human prehistory, axes to fell trees and sickles for harvesting grain were the only tools people might bring with them. All other tools were made from materials found at the site, such as fire stakes of birch, long rods

7.
Cassava
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Manihot esculenta is a woody shrub native to South America of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is extensively cultivated as a crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root. Though it is often called yuca in Spanish and in the United States, it differs from the yucca, Cassava, when dried to a powdery extract, is called tapioca, its fermented, flaky version is named garri. Cassava is the third-largest source of carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice. Cassava is a staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for over half a billion people. It is one of the most drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils, Nigeria is the worlds largest producer of cassava, while Thailand is the largest exporter of dried cassava. Cassava is classified as sweet or bitter. Like other roots and tubers, both bitter and sweet varieties of cassava contain antinutritional factors and toxins, with the bitter varieties containing much larger amounts, the more toxic varieties of cassava are a fall-back resource in times of famine or food insecurity in some places. Farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, the cassava root is long and tapered, with a firm, homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind, about 1 mm thick, rough and brown on the outside. Commercial cultivars can be 5 to 10 cm in diameter at the top, a woody vascular bundle runs along the roots axis. The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish, Cassava roots are very rich in starch and contain small amounts of calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin C. However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients, in contrast, cassava leaves are a good source of protein, but deficient in the amino acid methionine and possibly tryptophan. Forms of the domesticated species can also be found growing in the wild in the south of Brazil. By 4,600 BC, manioc pollen appears in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, the oldest direct evidence of cassava cultivation comes from a 1, 400-year-old Maya site, Joya de Cerén, in El Salvador. With its high potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of northern South America, southern Mesoamerica. Cassava was a food of pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas and is often portrayed in indigenous art. The Moche people often depicted yuca in their ceramics, spaniards in their early occupation of Caribbean islands did not want to eat cassava or maize, which they considered insubstantial, dangerous, and not nutritious. They much preferred foods from Spain, specifically wheat bread, olive oil, red wine, and meat, for these Christians in the New World, cassava was not suitable for communion since it could not undergo transubstantiation and become the body of Christ

8.
Gossypium
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It belongs to the tribe Gossypieae, in the mallow family, Malvaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical regions from both the Old and New World. The genus Gossypium comprises around 50 species, making it the largest in number in the tribe Gossypieae. New species continue to be discovered, the name of the genus is derived from the Arabic word goz, which refers to a soft substance. Cotton is the natural fibre used by modern humans. Cultivated cotton is also a major oilseed crop, as well as a protein source for animal feed. Consequently, the genus Gossypium has long attracted the attention of scientists, the origin of the genus Gossypium is dated to around 5-10 million years ago. Gossypium species are distributed in arid to semiarid regions of the tropics and subtropics, cultivated cottons are perennial shrubs most often grown as annuals. Plants are 1–2 m high in modern cropping systems, sometimes higher in traditional, multiannual cropping systems, the leaves are broad and lobed, with three to five lobes. The seeds are contained in a called a boll, each seed surrounded by fibres of two types. These fibres are the more interesting part of the plant. At the first ginning, the fibres, called staples, are removed. At the second ginning, the fibres, called linters, are removed. Commercial species of plant are G. hirsutum, G. barbadense, G. arboreum. Many varieties of cotton have been developed by breeding and hybridization of these species. Experiments are ongoing to cross-breed various desirable traits of wild cotton species into the commercial species, such as resistance to insects and diseases. Cotton fibres occur naturally in colours of white, brown, green, most wild cottons are diploid, but a group of five species from America and Pacific islands are tetraploid, apparently due to a single hybridization event around 1.5 to 2 million years ago. The tetraploid species are G. hirsutum, G. tomentosum, G. mustelinum, G. barbadense, Subgenus Gossypium Gossypium arboreum L. – tree cotton Gossypium herbaceum L. – Levant cotton Subgenus Houzingenia Gossypium raimondii Ulbr. – one of the progenitor species of tetraploid cotton, alongside G. arboreum Gossypium thurberi Tod

9.
Greenstone (archaeology)
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Greenstone artefacts may be made of greenschist, chlorastrolite, serpentine, omphacite, chrysoprase, olivine, nephrite, chloromelanite among other green-hued minerals. The term also includes jade and jadeite, although these are more frequently identified by these latter terms. The greenish hue of these rocks generally derives from the presence of such as chlorite, hornblende. Greenstone minerals were presumably selected for their color rather than their chemical composition, greenstone objects are often found very considerable distances from the source of the rock, indicating early travel or trading networks. Ancient China and Mesoamerica have especial reputations for the prevalence and significance of greenstone usage, Greenstones also figure prominently in the indigenous cultures of southeastern Australia, and among the Māori of New Zealand. H. D. Skinner, Otago University Museum, transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Geological Investigation of the Nephrites, Serpentines, and Related Greenstones used by the Maoris of Otago, transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand

10.
Speech scroll
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In art history, speech scroll is an illustrative device denoting speech, song, or, in rarer cases, other types of sound. While European speech scrolls were drawn as if they were an actual unfurled scroll or strip of parchment, Mesoamerican speech scrolls are merely scroll-shaped, speech scrolls are found throughout Mesoamerica. One of the earliest examples of a Mesoamerican speech scroll was found on an Olmec ceramic cylinder seal dated to approximately 650 BC, here two lines issue from a birds mouth followed by glyphs proposed to be 3 Ajaw, a rulers name. In Mesoamerica, the speech-scroll is usually oriented with the longest outer edge upward, some Mesoamerican speech scrolls are divided lengthwise with each side a different shade. Glyphs or similar markings rarely appear on the Mesoamerican speech scroll, although tabs—small, if the speech scroll represents a tongue, then the tabs may represent teeth, but their meaning or message, if any, is not known. At times, speech scrolls are decorated with devices that describe the tone of the speech, In an engraving at the Maya site of Chichen Itza, a Spaniards speech scroll in a 16th-century Aztec codex is decorated with feathers to denote soft, smooth words. In another 16th century codex, the Selden Codex, two Mixtec rulers are shown insulting two ambassadors through the use of flint knife icons attached to the speech scrolls, as with many native traditions, use of the speech scroll died out in the decades following the Spanish Conquest. In contrast to the nature of Mesoamerican speech scrolls, Medieval European speech scrolls or banderoles appear as actual scrolls. They first become common at the start of the Gothic period, previously, as in Byzantine art, spoken words, if they appeared at all, were usually painted alongside a figure, these are called tituli. However, earlier works using banderoles are the Aachen Gospels of Otto III and it may be seen in the Santa Trinita Maestà by Cimabue, Duccios Maestà, and other works. The convention had a historical appropriateness, as the Old Testament was originally written on scrolls and they may also be used for the words of angels, especially Gabriels greeting to Mary in Annunciation scenes. Unlike Mesoamerican speech scrolls, European speech scrolls usually contain the spoken words, because the words are usually religious in nature, the speech scroll is often written in Latin even when appearing in woodcut illustrations for books written in the vernacular. This would also enable the illustration to be used in editions in other languages, European speech scrolls may at times be seen in secular works as well and may also contain the name of a person to identify them. On carved figures the words would usually be painted on the scroll and have worn away. In some Late Gothic and Renaissance works, and in architectural decoration, the European speech scroll fell out of favor largely due to an increasing interest in realism in painting, the halo had a similar decline. Speech balloon Banderole - a streamer or pennant Boone, Elizabeth Writing Without Words, Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica, coggins, Clement Chase Pure Language & Lapidary Prose in New Theories on the Ancient Maya, Elin C. Danien and Robert J. Sharer, Eds, john Pohls - Ancient Books - Mixtec Group Codices - Codex Selden. Hilmo, Maidie Medieval Images, Icons, and Chaucer Illustrated English Literary Texts, From Ruthwell Cross to the Ellesmere Chaucer, holt, Dennis About the Endangered Language Fund Logo, accessed November 2007

11.
Serpentinite
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Serpentinite is a rock composed of one or more serpentine group minerals. Minerals in this group are formed by serpentinization, a hydration, the mineral alteration is particularly important at the sea floor at tectonic plate boundaries. Serpentinization is a geological low-temperature metamorphic process involving heat and water in which low-silica mafic and ultramafic rocks are oxidized and hydrolyzed with water into serpentinite. Peridotite, including dunite, at and near the seafloor and in mountain belts is converted to serpentine, brucite, magnetite, and other minerals — some rare, such as awaruite, and even native iron. In the process large amounts of water are absorbed into the increasing the volume. The density changes from 3.3 to 2.7 g/cm3 with a concurrent volume increase on the order of 30-40%, the reaction is highly exothermic and rock temperatures can be raised by about 260 °C, providing an energy source for formation of non-volcanic hydrothermal vents. The magnetite-forming chemical reactions produce hydrogen gas under anaerobic conditions prevailing deep in the mantle, carbonates and sulfates are subsequently reduced by hydrogen and form methane and hydrogen sulfide. The hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide provide energy sources for deep sea chemotroph microorganisms, serpentinite is formed from olivine via several reactions, some of which are complementary. Olivine is a solution between the magnesium-endmember forsterite and the iron-endmember fayalite. Serpentinite reaction 1a and 1b, below, exchange silica between forsterite and fayalite to form serpentine group minerals and magnetite, Reaction 1c describes the hydration of olivine with water only to yield serpentine and Mg2. Talc and magnesian chlorite are possible products, together with the serpentine minerals antigorite, lizardite, the final mineralogy depends both on rock and fluid compositions, temperature, and pressure. Antigorite forms in reactions at temperatures that can exceed 600 °C during metamorphism, lizardite and chrysotile can form at low temperatures very near the Earths surface. In the presence of carbon dioxide, however, serpentinitization may form either magnesite or generate methane and it is thought that some hydrocarbon gases may be produced by serpentinite reactions within the oceanic crust. Or, in balanced form, Reaction 2a is favored if the serpentinite is Mg-poor or if there isnt enough carbon dioxide to promote talc formation, Reaction 2b is favored in highly magnesian compositions and low partial pressure of carbon dioxide. If an olivine composition contains sufficient fayalite, then olivine plus water can completely metamorphose to serpentine, serpentinitization of a mass of peridotite usually destroys all previous textural evidence because the serpentine minerals are weak and behave in a very ductile fashion. Serpentine is the product of the reaction between water and fayalites ferrous ions, the process is effected by bacteria under anaerobic conditions. The two unoxidised ferrous ions still available in the three units of fayalite finally combine with the four ferric cations and oxide anions to form two formula units of magnetite. Serpentinization has been proposed as an alternative source for the observed methane traces

12.
Florida State University
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Florida State University is an American public space-grant and sea-grant research university. Its primary campus is located on a 1,391. 54-acre campus in Tallahassee, Florida and it is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the state of Florida, the university is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university comprises 16 separate colleges and more than 110 centers, facilities, labs and institutes that offer more than 360 programs of study, the university has an annual budget of over $1.7 billion and an annual economic impact of over $10 billion. Florida State is home to Floridas only National Laboratory – the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and is the birthplace of the commercially viable anti-cancer drug Taxol. Florida State University also operates The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Florida State University leads Florida in four of eight areas of external funding for the STEM disciplines, FSU officially launched the Raise the Torch, The Campaign for Florida State on October 17,2014. The campaign has a goal of more than $1 billion which will improve academics, research. As of September 30,2016, Florida State Universitys Raise the Torch campaign has raised $938,972,249, for 2017, U. S. News & World Report ranked Florida State as the 38th best public university in the United States. FSUs intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known by their Florida State Seminoles nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I, in their 113-year history, Florida States varsity sports teams have won 20 national athletic championships and Seminole athletes have won 78 individual NCAA national championships. In 1819 the Florida Territory was ceded to the United States by Spain as an element of the Adams–Onís Treaty, the Territory was conventionally split by the Appalachicola or later the Suwannee rivers into East and West areas. Florida State University is traceable to a set by the 1823 U. S. Congress to create a system of higher education. The 1838 Florida Constitution codified the system by providing for land allocated for the schools. In 1845 Florida became the 27th State of the United States, in 1851 the Florida Legislature voted to establish two seminaries of higher education on opposite sides of the Suwannee River. Francis W. Eppes and other city leaders established an academy called the Florida Institute in Tallahassee as a legislative inducement to locate the West Florida Seminary in Tallahassee. The East Florida Seminary opened in Ocala in 1853, closed in 1861, the East Florida Seminary is the institution to which the modern University of Florida traces its foundation. Two years later the institution absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy founded in 1843 as the Misses Bates School, the West Florida Seminary stood near the front of the Westcott Building on the existing FSU campus, making this site the oldest continually used location of higher learning in Florida. In 1860–61 the legislature started formal training at the school with a law amending the original 1851 statute

Florida State University (commonly referred to as Florida State or FSU) is an American public space-grant and sea-grant …

The Integration Statue, sculpted in 2003, celebrates over 50 years of Florida State being an integrated school for African American and Caucasian students. The statue depicts Maxwell Courtney, the first African American to graduate from FSU, Fred Flowers, the first African American to wear an FSU athletic uniform, and Doby Flowers, the first African American homecoming queen dressed in traditional home coming attire for 1970.

West Florida Seminary main building, circa 1880. Built in 1854 as the Florida Institute. This building was replaced with College Hall in 1891. The Westcott Building now stands on this site – the oldest site of higher education in Florida

Chemistry lab in 1900, at what was then known as the West Florida Seminary